1. Field of the Disclosure
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to an apparatus and method for peeling a protection film and a method for fabricating a stereoscopic image display device, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for peeling a protective film which can shorten process time and reduce defects in the process of peeling a protective film of a polarizer, and a method for fabricating a stereoscopic image display device.
2. Background
In recent years, display devices as visual information transfer media have gained more importance in the information society. In order to hold an important position in the future, the display devices should be thin and light, offer lower power consumption and provide high image quality.
A liquid crystal display (LCD) device displays an image by using optical anisotropy of a liquid crystal material. In addition, the LCD device has better viewing characteristic and has lower average power consumption and heat generation than CRTs having the same screen size. The LCD devices are drawing great attention as one of the next generation display devices.
In such a liquid crystal display device, picture signals are supplied to a matrix of pixels respectively, for displaying a desired picture by controlling light transmittance of the pixels. For this, the liquid crystal display device is provided with a lower substrate having thin film transistors arranged thereon and an upper substrate having color filters formed thereon bonded together with a liquid crystal layer disposed therebetween. The lower substrate and the upper substrate have polarizers formed on surfaces thereof for controlling blocking or transmission of light depending on a direction of transmission of the light.
A fabrication process for the liquid crystal display device includes a lower substrate forming process, an upper substrate forming process, a cell process for encapsulating liquid crystals, and a module process for attaching and assembling a polarizer, a driving circuit unit, a backlight unit, etc. The polarizer is put into the module process, with a protective film adhered to both surfaces or a single surface of the polarizer through an adhesive film. The adhesive film is provided to attach the polarizer to a display panel. The protective film is for protecting the adhesive film until before the polarizer is attached to the display panel. Accordingly, the polarizer undergoes a protective film peeling process if it to be attached to the display panel.
Hereinafter, the process and apparatus for peeling a protective film according to the related art will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a top plan view of an apparatus for peeling a protective film according to the related art.
The apparatus for peeling a protective film F may include a flat plate 20 with a polarizer P disposed thereon, vacuum suction holes H formed on the front surface of the flat plate 20, vertical moving units 34 disposed on both sides of the flat plate 20 and including guide rails for guiding Y-directional movement, a horizontal moving unit 33 that moves along the vertical moving units 34, and a peeling unit 30 mounted on the horizontal moving unit 33 and for peeling the protective film F while moving in the x-direction.
Hereinafter, the operation of the apparatus for peeling the protective film F will be explained. First, the polarizer P with the protective film F attached on its front surface is placed on top of the flat plate 20. The polarizer P is vacuum-sucked onto the flat plate 20 by the vacuum suction holes H. A plurality of vacuum suction holes H may be disposed at equal intervals to increase adhesion and make the adhesion uniform.
Next, the peeling unit 30 on the horizontal moving unit 33 starts to peel a surface of the protective film F. The peeling unit 30 may include a clamp 75 and a peeling roller 71. The peeling roller 71 may have adhesive constituents applied on its outer peripheral surface or have an adhesive tape wound around it. The clamp 75 may be disposed at a side portion of the peeling roller 71.
The peeling roller 71 comes into contact with a surface of the protective film F to adhere the protective film F thereon, and then the peeling roller 71 is rotated to wind the surface of the protective film F. Accordingly, the surface of the protective film F is peeled from the polarizer P, and the wound surface of the protective film is held by the clamp 75.
Afterwards, the horizontal moving unit 33 completely peels the protective film F from the polarizer P while moving in the x-direction by means of the vertical moving unit 34. Simultaneously, the peeling unit 30 also moves in the y-direction on the horizontal moving unit 33, and therefore the protective film F is peeled in a diagonal direction as indicated by the arrow.
The polarizer P with the protective film peeled proceeds to the next stage to be attached to the display panel, which will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 2.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a method for peeling a protective film and attaching a polarizer according to the related art.
All the stages of this process can be carried out on the flat plate.
A polarizer supply unit 1 is a stage of loading many polarizers each having a protective film attached thereon. A polarizer is transferred from the polarizer supply unit 1 to the protective film peeling unit 2 by means of a first robot arm 11. Next, a peeling process as explained in FIG. 1 is performed in the protective film peeling unit 2. Afterwards, the polarizer with the protective film peeled is transferred to a polarizer attachment unit 4 by means of a second robot arm 12 or moving means (not shown). At this point, a display panel is transferred from a display panel supply unit 3 to the polarizer attachment unit 4 by means of a third robot arm 13 or moving means (not shown). The polarizer attachment unit 4 is adapted to attach the polarizer on the bottom once the display panel is transported and aligned at a fixed position. The surface of the protective film from which the protective film is peeled is attached to the display panel. Subsequently, the display panel with the polarizer attached thereon is moved to a backlight unit and circuit assembly unit 5, where a backlight unit is assembled under the display panel and a driving circuit is connected by means of a flexible film.
As explained above, the process of peeling the protective film and attaching the polarizer is sequentially carried out at time intervals since there should be no interference between the stages and the robot arms and moving means for connecting between the stages. Moreover, the stages do not overlap each other because each process is carried out on the flat plate, thus leading to an increase in equipment layout area. In addition, a complicated driving apparatus is included to connect between the stages, thus making maintenance and management not easy.